


with great power comes great responsibility

by luckysam78



Category: Buzzfeed The Try Guys (Web Series), Buzzfeed Unsolved (Web Series), Buzzfeed: Worth It (Web Series)
Genre: Action & Romance, Action/Adventure, Alternate Universe - Superheroes/Superpowers, Alternate Universe - Supernatural Elements, F/M, Fluff and Angst, Friends to Lovers, Gen, Getting Together, Getting to Know Each Other, Psychic Abilities, Supernatural Elements, Superpowers
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-08-31
Updated: 2019-09-21
Packaged: 2020-08-13 18:09:20
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 4
Words: 14,331
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20178529
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/luckysam78/pseuds/luckysam78
Summary: in a world where normal humans coexist with people with supernatural powers, ryan meets a girl who knows something about the dark future that lies ahead. after all, with great power comes great responsibility





	1. Chapter 1

For somebody who believed in the supernatural, Ryan Bergara had a hard time believing in reality. As crazy as it sounded, it was true that people had gotten superpowers and that society was able to function normally. While this might sound surprising, there really was not much to adapting to this change as most of the superpowers weren’t powerful enough to make people superheroes who could save the world. Sure, healers were considered an important asset on the battlefield but other than that, superpowers didn’t have much of an impact.

Superpowers had been around since the late 20th century and to be completely honest, nobody knew where they came from, even if scientists claim to have figured it out. Only 15% of the human population had some sort of superpower and each person’s ability varied in terms of power. Some people were more powerful than others and sometimes that would get to their head so the government worked with people with powerful superpowers to create new rules and regulations to control these power-hungry people. The government invested a lot of money into enforcing rules and there was a dramatic decline in dramatic super villains who didn’t do much other than scare a couple of people.

Ryan was seven years old when he placed a name on his power. Ever since he was young, he had seen a faint light around everybody’s bodies but didn’t question it, assuming that everybody else could see these ring-like lights. But then, he learned about superpowers in class and he learned that the ring-like circles were called emotional auras that could only be seen by people with special powers and that those people were called empaths. Ryan did some research and found out that different colors corroborated with different emotions, and he excitedly told his parents about his superpower.

His parents were generally nice people and when they found out, they couldn’t help but feel a little worried. They didn’t know if this would put Ryan at a disadvantage and even if it did, they couldn’t take it away from his as it was innate. They did some research and eventually were able to accept Ryan and they took Ryan to a superpower specialist who helped Ryan enhance and control his powers.

By the time he was ten years old, Ryan could read the emotions of people easily and the colors of auras were more distinctive than before. When he was younger, auras were sort of hazy, grey-colored rings of light but as his superpower developed, he could identify the color from a mile away. His power was useful when trying to identify how a friend felt, and he usually helped out people who had rather blue auras feel better.

Ryan’s parents’ worries about discrimination became relevant when Ryan began applying for jobs as he grew older. Companies didn’t really want people with superpowers as there was still a lot of stigma around hiring people with supernatural abilities but he was able to become an intern at Buzzfeed. The best part of being at Buzzfeed was obviously the ability to create videos but another benefit was that it paid its employees with superpowers the same wage as their regular human employees.

Now that people knew supernatural powers existed, they began to accept conspiracy theories easily and Ryan also got caught up in the conspiracy storm. He had always been fascinated with unsolved crime cases as well as the unexplored supernatural world and decided to start a show at Buzzfeed called Buzzfeed Unsolved. He discussed unsolved cold cases and also visited haunted locations in hopes of finding evidence of the paranormal. His companion in these adventures was Shane Madej, a normal human who had a strong belief that “just because superpowers exist, it doesn’t mean that ghosts and demons do too”.

Ryan was determined to prove that ghosts were just as real as telepaths and the result was a five season-long series on the supernatural. It was wildly successful and as not many people with superpowers were famous for their work, many younger kids with superpowers looked up to Ryan. It was nice to know that he had an impact on people’s lives and Ryan decided to keep creating content for his enjoyment and for others’.

Today, Ryan walked into the office and read people’s auras per usual. Many interns had their usual heather purple auras, signaling that they were extremely stressed. Some people at the office had graphite grey auras that showed they were definitely not getting enough sleep and did not have enough energy to function. There were a select few people who were harder to read, like Jen Ruggirello, whose aura always seemed oddly hazy, but for the most part, people had parmesan yellow auras, meaning they were relatively content.

When Ryan and Shane had been participating in Kelsey’s Sims series, Kelsey brought up the analogy of auras being similar to the color of the Sims’ moods. There were some differences in correlation between color and emotions but for the most part, the colors in the Sims that matched with certain emotions matched with the colors of auras for those emotions. But even as accurate as the colors generally were, they didn’t express the full scale of human emotion. For instance, when somebody was feeling in love, the aura’s shade of pink would vary, unlike the standard fuchsia pink in the Sims. Sometimes the pink would be more magenta, which was more of a cautious feeling of love and coral pink was a very fleeting, lustful love that, if turned to a ballet slipper pink, could turn into more emotionally-connective love.

As Ryan took a seat down at his desk, he noted that Sara and Shane were standing across from each other as they talked, their auras radiating an intense ballet slipper pink and he caught Shane’s eye, making a mock face of disgust. Shane rolled his eyes and continued talking to Sara, who was showing him her latest drawings. Sara had the unique ability to communicate with animals and her interactions with various types of critters fueled her creativity. She drew elegant mythical creatures that seemed to pop right off the page with vibrant colors. Being an animal communicator was almost as rare as being an empath and it was even rarer for any people with superpowers to possess the amount of talent Sara had.

Ryan turned back towards his computer and right before he put his headphones on, he felt a tap on his shoulder. He swiveled around in his chair to face Steven, who had his usual, happy mustard yellow aura, and Steven grinned as he read Ryan’s thoughts. Steven was probably one of the nosiest and noisiest telepaths Ryan has ever encountered because even though Steven talked a lot, he was also chatty inside Ryan’s head. Every child had learned how to block their thoughts from a telepath from a young age but Ryan put a thin filter on his thoughts and allowed Steven to see the majority of them because he trusted Steven. But while Steven could be a sweet guy, he could also be an annoyance.

“Ryan, Ryan, Ryan. You know better than to be envious of people in love. I know you’re single but the sooner you put yourself out there, the less sad you’ll be around couples,” Steven reproached in a playful manner and Ryan shot him an annoyed glance. So what if he was a little bitter that everybody around him seemed to be in love while he was as single as he could be? Ryan knew that he should probably at least make an attempt to start going on dates but because work had been so draining lately, he couldn’t find the effort to.

“Shut up, Steven. Shouldn’t you be searching for a restaurant with golden truffles or something?” Ryan teased half-heartedly as he turned back towards his computer, clicking on a file to open it up. As ready as Ryan was for Steven to drop the topic, Steven wasn’t ready to let the conversation end.

“Seriously Ryan, you need to stop moping around and find somebody. I’m sure lots of people would want to date an empath,” Steven scooted over to next to Ryan, still sitting in his office chair. Ryan was tempted to push Steven off his chair to wipe the smug smile off his face but resisted the urge to do so. All he wanted was for Adam to teleport here and take Steven away to another location.

“Okay, I’ll keep that in mind,” Ryan replied dryly and Steven took this as a victory, pumping his fists triumphantly before scooting back to his desk. Steven wasn’t a hundred percent correct about people wanting to date an empath; there was a good chunk of people who still found people with superpowers strange and refused to date them. This was yet another obstacle people with superpowers had to face and Ryan pushed any deep thoughts about the topic back into the recesses of his mind.

Ryan put his headphones on and began the tedious task of listening to all the audio files from the haunted location he and Shane had visited. He found some clips that sounded pretty compelling and saved them to show to Shane later. Later that day, Ryan filmed a post-mortem with Shane and Shane’s aura was a mustard yellow, which helped raise Ryan’s energy levels a little more. Ryan found that in addition to being able to read the emotions of others, he could also be influenced by others’.

After filming the post-mortem, Ryan called it a day and decided to walk to Starbucks to get a quick drink with caffeine so he could manage to stay up a little late to finish up some final touches on an episode. He wasn’t paying much attention to where he was walking as he was too busy scrolling through Twitter to look where he was walking and he bumped into somebody. Instantly, he lowered his phone and turned to the person, apologizing. “Sorry about that. I wasn’t looking where I was walking.”

The girl he bumped into turned towards him and Ryan almost lost his grip on his phone. She had the brightest aura Ryan had ever seen and it was probably brighter than the light of the sun and stars combined. It was a strange silver color that Ryan had never seen but at least it wasn’t an angry scarlet red. Her eyes were golden, meaning that she was a seer and could tell the future. Seers were rare and Ryan had never met a seer with such an intense aura. Her golden eyes flashed with recognition as she replied, “No worries. Have I seen you before?”

“Maybe? My name is Ryan Bergara and I’m the host of a show called Buzzfeed Unsolved. Maybe you saw me on the internet somewhere,” Ryan reasoned, still fascinated by her silver aura. He wanted to reach his fingers out and try to touch it as it seemed so metallic that looked physically smooth but suppressed the urge. The girl shook her head and her tangled curls bounced delicately.

“Doesn’t sound familiar. I’m Marielle by the way,” Marielle looked like she was about to say something more but her phone rang with a notification of a new text. She glanced down at the screen of her phone and quickly began typing a message. Before she left, Marielle met Ryan’s eyes one last and said, “I have to go. I’ll see you soon.”

“Soon?” Ryan’s question was left hanging as Marielle disappeared into the endless stream of people walking down the street. If Marielle was telling the truth, then there really was no need to answer Ryan’s question right now.

~

While society seemed like a utopia because of its ability to function normally with people with superpowers, it still had its faults. Many people were anti-superpower and firmly believed that people with superpowers had no right to be wandering around in the world and should be locked up. Los Angeles was a more progressive area and generally, people accepted those with superpowers, which is why Ryan was surprised when people showed up at the front doors of Buzzfeed, protesting.

Ryan had been minding his own business at work as he finished up working on an episode and admittedly, he had been letting his mind wander as he mindlessly checked for errors in editing. He couldn’t forget about Marielle, whose mysterious remark had been on repeat in his brain, and wanted to know more about Marielle. Ryan felt naturally attracted to Marielle because of her metallic aura but he also thought she was one of the prettiest girls he had ever seen. He hoped that she would be true to her word and they would somehow manage to meet again but for now, he had no way of contacting her so he could only wait.

Just as Ryan took off his headphones and prepared the file for sending, he heard a distant commotion outside and stood up, walking over towards the source of the sound. As he got closer, he could hear the chants of angry people and see a distant dark glow of red. Near the glass doors at the front of the office, there was a crowd of anti-superpower protestors yelling and holding picket signs walking down the street. A bunch of Buzzfeed employees were standing in the lobby, watching the protestors march down the street and Ryan walked next to Steven, Shane, Sara, and Andrew, who were watching with concern flashing in their eyes.

Their usual comforting auras now were a plum shade of worry as the protestors’ chants of “Freaks are making our economy stink!” rose louder and louder. The front doors of the office were locked as everybody at the office knew that protestors wouldn’t hesitate to try to attack Buzzfeed since the company paid people with superpowers equally. A couple of protestors left the horde to bang on the doors and picket signs were thrown at the glass doors. Ryan winced at the clunking noises as the signs hit the doors and Steven’s usual grin was now a painful grimace.

The protestors eventually stopped bothering the front doors and joined the rest of the mob as they continued down the street, causing a ruckus and worsening traffic. Shane had an arm wrapped comforting around Sara’s shoulders as Sara leaned into him, biting her bottom lip as her plum aura deepened to a sangria purple. She was scrolling through her phone and announced, “These protests are happening everywhere today. It’s like they all came together to protest on this one day to get their message across.”

“I still don’t understand why anti-superpower people don’t accept people with superpowers. I mean, people with superpowers lose their powers,” Shane frowned as he spoke and he left the last part of the statement unsaid. Nobody had figured out how to remove powers without killing the person and if anti-power protestors wanted to get rid of all people with superpowers, they might as well come together to commit mass genocide right under the government’s nose. It’s not like the government would act quickly enough to stop them.

“Some people think that having equality will result in them losing power but in reality, equality just means equal rights for everybody and they don’t have to lose power in order to have equality,” Jen walked up next to Ryan and Steven nodded in agreement. Many people didn’t like talking about politics but because politics now controlled their lives and rights, it was kind of necessary for them to discuss it.

Steven looked like he wanted to share more but one of the office managers walked into the lobby, telling everybody to get back to work and ignore the commotion. The small crowd of employees dispersed as everybody scrambled to get back to their respective workspaces. Ryan wasn’t a seer but he had a feeling that these protests were going to lead to something bigger in the future; he just didn’t know what this all could mean.

~

The protests only worsened and while the first few protests were organized throughout the nation, the hate spread and protests became a worldwide trend. Hundreds of people throughout the entire world came together to scream angrily about how people with superpowers shouldn’t be considered human. The protestors in Los Angeles constantly crowded around the Buzzfeed office to the point where Ryan had to enter the building through the back doors since the glass doors leading to the lobby were bolted and covered with planks of wood after a few protestors threw picket signs that smashed through the doors.

After a week of dealing with the protests, Ryan really needed a break from all the stress and as he walked back into his apartment, the last person he expected to see was Marielle. His first instinct was to dumbly think, “Wow her aura is still so bright”. His second instinct was to ask how she found her way in and how she knew where he lived but Marielle quickly closed the door behind him. Before he could ask the questions, Marielle stammered rapidly, “Your, um, roommates let me in. I told them I was here to help you with a video thing. I, uh, found your address by asking my friend. She knows you.”

“Oh, okay, yeah,” Ryan replied as if she had definitively answered all his questions. He wanted to ask more questions but Marielle seemed like she really was rushing to tell him whatever she needed to say so he kept his mouth shut as she continued to talk.

“Listen, I don’t have much time to say this but I came to tell you that you shouldn’t go to work tomorrow. Tell all your friends not to go too. I can’t tell you more and I don’t have that much time. It’s just… dangerous,” Marielle nervously curled one of her curls around her index finger as she spoke, clearly anxious about something, or maybe someone. She seemed like she was in a rush and needed to get out of Ryan’s apartment as soon as possible.

“Wait, why? Wait, sorry, right, you can’t tell me. Um, why this is going to sound weird but why should I trust you?” Ryan had trouble sounding coherent as he wasn’t used to sort-of strangers showing up at his place and telling him not to go to work the next day. He didn’t know Marielle that well but his instincts were telling him to believe what she was saying.

“I can tell the future. What else is there to make me more credible?” Marielle grinned as she scribbled something down on a random slip of paper lying on the kitchen counter with a pen from her pocket. She handed Ryan the slip of paper and he saw that she had written her number along with her name and a small smiley face. “Here’s my number. You’re gonna need it in the future. You’ll know when you need to. I have to go.”

Before Ryan could ask any more questions, Marielle brushed past him and left, closing the door behind her with a dull thud. Ryan was still in shock as he glanced down at the slip of paper in his hands, wondering what on Earth had just happened. He remembered that Marielle said they were going to meet again but he hadn’t imagined it to be like this. Ryan remembered the honesty in her golden eyes as she warned him of the dangers of going to work and glanced down at her handwriting on the slip of paper. Since she had predicted them meeting again a second time, Ryan should probably trust her words. So, he saved her contact in his phone and waited patiently for the time that he would need to talk to her again.


	2. Chapter 2

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> the world turns upside down and ryan learns that if he wants to survive whatever is coming, he’s going to have to trust marielle

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> tw: bombings

Despite popular belief, Ryan wasn’t an idiot. He believed in ghosts and demons but it just meant that he was a believer, not an idiot. It wasn’t like he was believing in the tooth fairy or accusing politicians in participating in cult activities anytime soon; Ryan believed in things that were realistic. Consequently, Ryan also decided to believe in Marielle’s warnings, as insane as she sounded. His only reason for believing her was the fact that she was a seer.

He knew that he sounded insane when he called his close friends at Buzzfeed and told them to not show up at work the next day. They all thought he was insane or drunk for calling at an ungodly hour in order to warn them not to go to work. Ryan had trouble explaining why they shouldn’t go as he didn’t know exactly. He knew that he couldn’t ask Marielle since she probably wasn’t allowed to tell him what the danger was. Seers had to follow a certain set of rules about sharing their visions about the future so the fact that Marielle was already vaguely warning him was pretty good.

Only a few people believed him and Shane was one of them. He knew Ryan long enough to tell if Ryan was lying and he also decided that he and Sara needed a break from work as all the protests had been stressing Sara out.

However, Steven was one of the people who didn’t believe Ryan. He insisted that there was nothing to worry about and thought that Ryan was just being his normal paranoid self. Ryan continued to try to convince Steven but no matter how hard he tried, Steven refused to believe that anything dangerous would happen at work.

Unfortunately, Marielle’s predictions were correct as the day that Ryan didn’t go to work was the day that bombs went off in various offices around the United States as well as other countries. The offices that had bombs planted in them were all offices that offered equal pay to people with superpowers and Buzzfeed was one of them. The bombs all went off at the same time, meaning that a few lucky countries had offices that were vacant when the bombs exploded.

The bombs were all hidden in packages delivered and luckily, nobody was severely injured in the explosion at the Buzzfeed office. A few people had mild injuries but the explosion was not so much harmful as it was a warning. In other places, some employees weren’t as fortunate and injuries started stacking up in large numbers in the flashing headlines. Many companies let their employees return home after the bombs, afraid they would be the next targets.

Footage from videos taken inside buildings where the bombs went off was terrifying. The sounds of the explosions mixed with the horrified screams of confused employees were in all the videos. In some videos, there was be falling debris and in others, the entire building began collapsing. The horrors of the bombings made Ryan wonder what type of people could cause this much destruction and feel proud instead of guilty.

The first person Ryan called after hearing the news was Steven since he knew that Steven showed up at work and ignored his warning. He anxiously twirled a pen between his fingers as he waited for Steven to pick up and when his friend finally answered, Ryan barely held in a large sigh of relief. “Hey man, how are you doing?”

“I’m fine. The bombs went off on the third floor so I was fine. It gave the interns quite a scare though.” Ryan wished he could read auras through the phone so he could tell if Steven was really doing fine. He sounded a little shaken but still put together, which was a little worrying as Ryan expected Steven to be a little more startled as Steven had a tendency to be startled by loud, abrupt noises.

“Is now a bad time to say I told you so?” Ryan joked, earning a small, genuine chuckle from Steven. He was glad that he could provide some comic relief even in difficult times.

“Sort of. Listen, I’ve got to check in with a couple of my family members in Malaysia so I’ll call you later, alright? Thanks for checking in.” After Steven’s call ended, Ryan called Shane next, still twirling the pen anxiously. He knew that Shane and Sara were probably safe since they didn’t go to work but he knew that this was probably a lot to handle for Sara, therefore also affecting Shane.

“Hey Ryan, turns out you were right. Thanks for the heads up. How did you know this was going to happen?” Shane asked and Ryan froze, his pen clattering from his fingers as he tried to recall what he had told Shane about the warning last night. It was something along the lines of “I just have a bad feeling because of all the protests” so Ryan tried to stick to that reasoning.

“Yeah, of course. I, uh, just figured that the protests would get worse. They haven’t exactly been getting better so I thought today might be that breaking point and I guess I was right.” Ryan hoped that Shane would buy his half-truth. As much as he wanted to give Marielle all the credit for the warning, he knew that if word spread that she was sharing information about the future, Marielle would get into trouble. “How are you and Sara doing?”

“That was a good call. I’m doing okay but Sara’s a little shaken. I can’t blame her. She’s terrified that everybody is going to turn on her just because she’s an animal communicator and it’s the worst.” Ryan heard Shane sigh wearily on the other side of the line. At this point, all the allies of people with superpowers were starting to get frustrated at anti-power protestors’ lack of respect for people. In addition to caring about his girlfriend’s wellbeing, Shane cared deeply about equality, which is probably why he was getting so worked up about the whole situation.

“That’s good to hear. I talked to Steven. He’s doing okay. I have yet to check in with a couple others,” Ryan informed and he and Shane talked a bit about the whole worldwide protesting situation before Ryan had to hang up in order to call some other fellow Buzzfeed employees. Most people were simply shocked and shaken but nobody was hurt too badly. Many people suspected that it was organized by terrorists or the protestors banded together through some sort of network to carry out such an elaborate plan. Ryan knew that once they started, they weren’t going to stop and he had a feeling that now was the time he needed to call Marielle.

Ryan’s gut reactions were strange as they always seemed to link him perfectly back to Marielle, almost as if their lives were purposely intertwined for some odd reason. Nevertheless, he called Marielle hoping that she would offer some insight on what to do now that the attacks she predicted happened.

“Hey Ryan,” Marielle answered the phone nonchalantly, probably expecting his call. She didn’t sound particularly worried since she knew that this was going to happen. “You called at the right moment.”

“Marielle, how are you doing? Do you maybe want to, you know, share what’s going to happen in the future? I feel like there are a lot of monumental moments in the future that I should probably know about, like if there are going to be any bombings in the office,” Ryan half-joked and Marielle laughed, her voice ringing with youthful spirituality compared to the strained voices of all the people Ryan had talked with earlier. He could practically imagine her glowing smile that probably made her dazzling aura even brighter.

“I’m afraid I can’t tell you that much but I can share some information, but not on the phone. Calls are easily traceable nowadays and we don’t need this information falling into the wrong hands. Can we meet at the coffee shop on the corner of Wilden street in ten minutes?” Marielle asked, her voice starting to get slightly quiet. Her concerns were valid as many people tracked down or even stalked seers to try to hear information about the future. No wonder she was in such a rush when she came to Ryan’s apartment; she was most likely concerned that his roommates would overhear them.

“Sure. See you then,” Ryan ended the call and grabbed his favorite denim jacket off the sofa, shrugging it on as he left the apartment. The coffee shop Marielle referred to was only a few blocks away so Ryan decided to walk there instead of taking an Uber.

As he walked down the streets, Ryan felt like he was in a post-apocalyptic movie scene as the usually crowded streets of Los Angeles were relatively empty, with only a couple cars driving. The sun was smothered by dark grey clouds that seemed to reflect the general mood of the public. There were a few people walking into their houses and Ryan could tell from their indigo auras that they were feeling extremely worried. Strangely enough, Ryan didn’t see any anti-power protestors out on the streets dancing with joy at the destruction of companies they hated.

Ryan arrived at the coffee shop early and ordered two mugs of coffee for him and Marielle to drink while they talked. He decided to take a seat inside at a booth tucked in a quiet corner of the shop. The booth was next to a giant glass window with designs painted on the borders of the glass and he stared out at the quiet streets, taking in the odd view of the cloudy sky. He took out his phone from his pocket and turned it on, glancing at the stream of messages he received. He didn’t feel like responding to any of them so he turned his phone off, feigning ignorance.

Just as Ryan put his phone away, he saw Marielle walk in and look around, spotting Ryan after a quick sweep of the relatively empty cafe. Marielle took a seat across from Ryan and he pushed an untouched mug of coffee towards her. “I got here early and got you a cup of coffee.”

“Thank you,” Marielle smiled as she wrapped her hands gently around the mug, lifting it to her lips to take a sip. Her aura’s brightness hadn’t faded at all and no matter how many times they met, Ryan never failed to be stunned by her beauty. “I’m… technically not allowed to share my visions but this is kind of extreme and I need to do this in order to make sure the world doesn’t get destroyed.”

“That’s a fair reason. Are you the only one with these visions of people getting hurt?” Ryan asked cautiously, not sure what he should ask and what he shouldn’t. Marielle was already putting herself into lots of danger by simply communicating with him and he didn’t want to push too hard with his questions. He wasn’t exactly sure what was considered playing it safe so he tried to settle on asking more neutral questions.

Marielle shook her head and her gorgeous curls bounced lightly as she did so. She took a small sip of her coffee before answering. “Other seers have similar visions but mine are different since I have a more pivotal role in… the grand scheme of things. Other seers are always with different people in their visions and in my visions, you’re always with me, which is why I thought I recognized you when I first bumped into you on the street the other day.”

“What does this all mean? Or, more specifically, what do you make of all these visions?” Ryan questioned and Marielle leaned her chin on one hand while her other hand still wrapped around the mug. She had a thoughtful expression as she considered his words and replied.

“I’m not quite sure. I just have these visions and I can't really tell if they’re good or bad. They just… are. Well, I guess, they’re sort of warnings. Usually, they’re just casual predictions but lately, the visions have all had this… black shadow that somehow manages to take away people’s powers,” Marielle’s volume dropped after the words “black shadow” and she glanced around to see if anybody was eavesdropping. The few people in the shop were minding their own business and didn’t even glance towards Ryan and Marielle. She still seemed tense as she leaned back into the chair, nudging her empty mug aside as she continued in a low voice. “I know it sounds insane but I swear that I’m not lying.”

“I believe you. That honestly sounds terrifying,” Ryan responded easily, slightly concerned with how easily he was trusting Marielle despite only knowing her for a couple of days but still willing to trust her anyway. Marielle’s visions sounded fantastical and if she had been telling anybody else what she predicted, they would call her crazy but luckily, Ryan was a believer so he accepted her words as the truth.

“I don’t know exactly when it’ll happen but I have a feeling that it's going to be soon. Sorry, I have to go meet with a few other seers discuss some stuff about vision. I’ll see you around soon. Thanks for the coffee,” Marielle grinned and Ryan managed to smile back even though he was still overwhelmed by her radiance. As she walked away, Ryan swore that the outer edges of her metallic aura were tinged a little pink and looked down at his hands, noticing that his own aura was a fuchsia pink and hoped that there were no other empaths in the cafe.

~

People finally returned to work three days after the bombings happened once the police ensured that no other locations had any bombs delivered. When Ryan returned to work, he found that other people were also having trouble focusing on their work and during lunch, he convened with his fellow Buzzfeed employees to discuss the bombings over the delicious pizza the company provided to try to make up for the cost emotional trauma caused by the bombings.

Steven recalled how loud the sound had been and how the shaking of the entire building made him think it was an earthquake at first. Andrew added on to his remarks, sharing that he had been terrified when the ambulance came and had to carry the injured people out on stretchers. Only two people were hurt by the debris as the package was with all the other packages on the third floor, where only a couple of people worked.

Then, the conversation shifted from how terrifying the bombing was to how Ryan tried to warn them not to go to work the next day. Ryan’s friends all joked that he probably was a seer but Ryan brushed their half-hearted accusations off and joked about how they should finally start taking him seriously.

“There were more protests all over the world today. It’s getting worse,” Sara anxiously informed as she scrolled through the news on her phone and Shane gently took the phone away from her, pulling her into a comforting half-hug. Sara had a consistent purple aura that was definitely worrying and Ryan couldn’t really blame her for being so nervous about the situation.

“Let’s not worry about that right now. Something is sketchy about this whole thing. It feels too… organized,” Shane commented and everybody nodded in agreement.

“I agree. I don’t know if…” Andrew started but trailed off when he saw somebody walking towards them out of the corner of his eye. He glanced down at his watch and cleared his throat. “I think the lunch break is over. The last thing we need is our manager giving us a ‘even though part of the office is destroyed, you can still do work’ lecture.”

Upon Andrew’s remark, everybody returned to their desks and resumed their work. Ryan desperately wished that he could tell everybody about the shadow Marielle had talked about but he decided that he should wait until it actually happened or else, no matter how serious people would take him, he would sound like a lunatic. Coincidentally, the shadow appeared in Europe the next day.

Marielle’s vague description of the shadow and its capabilities did not demonstrate the true scale of the destruction it caused. From the footage, Ryan could tell that the shadow was a huge black mass that seemed to consume cities as it travelled across Europe, wreaking havoc. News reporters sounded concerned as they informed viewers that the black mass, dubbed as “The Shadow” by the internet, was killing people with superpowers by extracting their souls from their bodies. The normal people the Shadow passed through didn’t seem to be affected physically but many witnesses described it as a “tornado-like sentient creature”, claiming that it also caused lots of old buildings to crumble.

The anti-power protestors, of course, were delighted and began worshipping the Shadow. They firmly believed that the Shadow was meant to cleanse the world of all the people with superpowers to make the world “pure” again.

Nobody at work bothered to try focusing on their work as everybody was too fascinated and worried about the Shadow to pay attention to anything else. People were retweeting updates and sharing posts about victims of the Shadow on their Instagram stories. The entire world seemed to have erupted into total chaos and there was no telling when the Shadow stopped. It was moving quite swiftly and everything seemed to pass right through its form so nobody had any idea on how to stop it from continuing to murder people with superpowers.

As Steven showed Sara, Shane, and Andrew graphic photos of the Shadow literally sucking the soul out of bodies, Ryan received a call from Marielle. He was grateful for her call as it was an excuse to get out of the hectic and loud workspace. Ryan stepped outside of the office and answered the call as he took a seat down where he and his friends usually ate lunch. “Hi Marielle! How are you doing?”

“I’m a little concerned but I’m doing okay. You saw the news, right?” Ryan detected a hint of worry in her voice and he knew that this Shadow was more dangerous than he thought it was if Marielle was scared.

“Yeah. You saw it in your vision. Is it going to come to Los Angeles? Are we safe?” The answer Ryan had in mind made the most sense and he had a feeling that he was correct, but he still had a sliver of hope that he was just considering the worst-case scenario. He heard hesitation in Marielle’s voice and realized that his questions might be a little intrusive. To be fair, this was a life-or-death situation so naturally, his first instinct would be to jump directly to the important questions.

“Yes. It’s coming to Los Angeles. If all goes according to plan, we will end up okay. For now, we can’t do anything to stop it,” Marielle sounded extremely devastated to deliver the news that they had to witness genocide and couldn’t prevent the destruction of lives. Ryan tried to handle the news as calmly as possible but he could practically hear his heart physically cracking from all the dismal emotions of the people who were soon to lose their loved ones to this unstoppable shadow. “I know this all sounds really bad but the seers I talked with who were in Europe survived. They survived because they were with the person they saw in their visions. The Shadow did take away their powers but they survived.”

“So does that mean if we’re together when the Shadow comes we’ll be alright?” Ryan wanted to wince at the hope in his voice as he asked.

“I believe so. But, we have a pretty important role so we have to be together when it comes if we want to stop it once and for all,” Marielle paused for a second and Ryan could hear her thinking before she continued. “Um, this is going to sound really weird but do you think I could stay over at your place? I’m not sure when exactly the Shadow will come and I need to have you by my side when it comes.”

“That makes sense. You can bring your stuff over tonight and settle in, if you want,” Ryan added the last part quickly, hoping that he didn’t sound too pushy. He glanced down at his hands and noted that his lilac purple aura was rapidly shifting to a bubble gum pink.

“That would be great. I know where you live so I don’t need your address. Okay, I just sound creepy now, sorry. See you later tonight!” Marielle fumbled with her words and Ryan stifled a giggle, finding her flustered expression endearing. He ended the call and returned back to work to find that everybody was still panicking about the shadow. Ryan’s excitement about Marielle staying over faded as he realized that sooner or later, everybody was going to be in danger and all he could do now was wait quietly for the storm to hit.

Later that evening, Ryan returned home after work and began preparing dinner for himself since his roommates were out on vacation. He had forgotten about Marielle coming over until the doorbell rang while he was cooking the pasta. Ryan opened the door and saw Marielle standing with a duffel bag in hand and a smile on her face. Her shiny aura was still tinged a little pink and one quick glance down at Ryan’s hands told Ryan that his aura was also turning pink.

“Hi! Sorry if I came at a bad time.” Ryan stepped aside to let Marielle enter the apartment and closed the door behind her before taking the duffel bag from her. She thanked him and he showed her to the guest room.

“Don’t worry about it. I was just making dinner. Are you okay with having pasta?” Luckily, Ryan had made enough pasta for two people (he was really hungry today). Marielle nodded and glanced around the room for a second, her smile widening slightly. Ryan hadn’t felt affection this strong for a long time and he was certain that he blushing madly but still hoped that Marielle didn’t notice.

When Ryan finished making pasta, Marielle, who had been unpacking her belongings, came out and ate dinner with him. To be honest, this was the first time Ryan had eaten dinner at the dinner table as he usually just made himself a meal and disappeared into his bedroom to binge-watch TV shows or movies on Netflix. He and Marielle stealthily avoided talking about the future and the Shadow as they both seemed to understand that those were the topics they had heard and talked about too much today. However, at one point in the conversation, Marielle did mention that she was able to call Ryan earlier and talk about the Shadow because the board of seers ruled that any visions relating to the Shadow could be shared if it meant it could save a few lives.

Ryan finally got to learn more about Marielle and shared some information about himself. If they weren’t staying together because of the looming threat of the Shadow, Ryan would have considered this a date but he thought that it wouldn’t be very appropriate to bring that thought up. One of the benefits of being an empath was the ability to tell if somebody had feelings for him and while he was obviously crushing very hard on Marielle, she felt the same way. Again, Ryan didn’t really think it was appropriate to start a relationship right during a time of unstoppable genocide so he silently promised to himself that he would ask Marielle out on a proper date after the storm passed over.

As much as Ryan tried to push his feelings aside, he couldn’t help but think of her later that night, wondering if fate was really trying to tell him something by pairing him and Marielle together.


	3. Chapter 3

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> the shadow arrives and marielle and ryan have no choice but to trust each other if they want to survive

The morning after Ryan and Marielle had dinner together, Ryan woke up at a normal time and almost forgot that Marielle was staying over until he saw her hairbrush next to the sink. He thought that she would still be sleeping as she mentioned not having to wake up early but when he stepped into the living room, he saw that she was already awake. Marielle was still in her pajamas but she had a blanket draped across her back as she sat with her legs crossed on the sofa, watching the news as she sipped coffee from a mug. Her curls were a bit messy but it suited her.

“Good morning. I hope you don’t mind that I borrowed a mug,” Marielle greeted Ryan as he sat down next to her. His eyes were trained on the television as images of the Shadow were shown along with statistics to show the number of deaths caused by the power. The Shadow appeared to be growing bigger and more powerful as it consumed more people. Over three hundred people with superpowers had already fallen victim to this awful monstrosity and scientists didn’t have any explanation for what the Shadow was. Even worse, the Shadow seemed to be invincible because no matter how many bullets the police shot at the Shadow, it seemed to be unaffected by any weapons.

Ryan’s worry must’ve shown itself on his face as he felt Marielle put a comforting hand on his shoulder when the news reporter continued to talk about how the police put up a barrier that did not block the Shadow’s movement at all. “Remember, the best option right now is to just keep living our lives until it comes. People are getting evacuated and I contacted seers all over the world who have gotten many people to safety. You should go to work.”

“I’ll make breakfast for us before I leave.” Ryan stood up and headed into the kitchen, turning on the stove. He prepared two plates of pancakes and brought both plates along with forks to the living room. Marielle thanked him as he handed her a plate and they both watched the news coverage of ongoing evacuations and warnings of where the Shadow could be heading to next. They both ate breakfast in silence for a couple of minutes before the news channel switched to covering some story about a flood in Thailand, prompting Ryan to turn off the television. He took Marielle’s empty plate and his to the kitchen and Marielle stood up, following him to the kitchen.

“Do you have a tall friend without powers and kind of shaggy hair? And does he have a girlfriend with curly hair and the ability to communicate with animals?” Marielle asked out of the blue as she leaned against the doorframe at the entrance of the kitchen and Ryan nearly dropped the fork he was holding in surprise. Her descriptions of Shane and Sara without knowing about them were oddly on point.

“Actually, yes. That would be Shane and Sara. They both work at Buzzfeed. How did you find out about them? Did you see them in a video?” Ryan began washing the plates, glancing over to see Marielle watching him.

“No, I had a vision that woke me up really early this morning. Your friends were with us when we faced the shadow came. Tell them to be careful,” Marielle warned as Ryan finished drying the plates. Their eyes met and for a brief second, Ryan wondered if she knew if they would still be with each other after the Shadow was gone but the moment was broken by Ryan’s phone ringing. He apologized sheepishly and disappeared into his room to answer the call, preparing to go to work as he talked to somebody from the Unsolved team about the post-mortem. As Ryan left the apartment to head to work, he waved goodbye to Marielle since he was still on the call and Marielle smiled in response but she still had a purple tinge to her aura, which revealed that she was a little more worried than she was brave enough to let on.

For the next couple of days, Ryan found himself in a constant state of worry. His aura stayed purple (although it often shifted towards pink whenever he was around Marielle) and saw that other people’s auras were plum purple too. Everybody at work was divided between talking too much about the Shadow or avoiding talking about it any cost.

He planned to tell Sara and Shane about Marielle’s warning but he saw that all the news about the Shadow was really stressing Sara out, which in turn made Shane concerned, so he put it off, deciding on telling them when the Shadow was closer.

Ryan was one of those people who didn’t want to talk about the Shadow as talking about it only made him feel more helpless. He found himself spending a lot of time with Marielle, hoping that it would keep both of their minds off the inevitable event and discovered that in addition to being really sweet, Marielle was a great listener. Marielle’s aura never dulled in terms of brightness and Ryan always felt his mood elevate whenever he talked to her and her aura changed from its purple tinge to a pink tint.

And as Ryan and Marielle grew closer, the Shadow was approaching Los Angeles quicker and quicker. Officials now didn’t encourage evacuation as the Shadow seemed to have decided to revisit some of the locations it had already passed through and killed some of the evacuated people. At this stage, many anti-power protestors were absolutely gleeful and the shadow seemed to empower them to protest even louder and laugh in the faces of people with superpowers. Twitter was a warzone of anti-power people arguing with superpower allies and determined liberals.

Eventually, the Shadow finished causing destruction in Australia and began heading across the Pacific Ocean. News reports claimed that scientists finally analyzed the patterns of the Shadow and predicted that it was heading towards Canada and would arrive the following morning.

Alas, scientists were proven wrong when Ryan woke up the next day to hear a commotion outside the next day. He opened his blinds to see people throwing their belongings into the trunks of their car and frantically running around. The usual sunny sky that greeted residents of Los Angeles was nowhere to be found as dark thunderclouds smothered any light from the sky.

Ryan turned on his phone and saw that he had over a hundred notifications and saw that Shane had called him three minutes ago and decided to call him back. Shane picked up after the first ring and when he answered, he sounded frantic. “The Shadow is here. Are you packing your things?”

“No, I’m staying,” Ryan answered, sounding more firm than he intended to. He could hear Shane’s surprise in the three seconds of silence that elapsed before Shane spoke again.

“Why are you staying behind?” Shane asked and Ryan glanced outside the window, watching as more people flooded the streets as cars started filling up the roads. Los Angeles usually had terrible traffic but now, the traffic on the streets was probably worse than the traffic caused

“Long story but basically I met this seer who told me that I have to stay behind. Oh, and she said that you and Sara should stay too.” As Ryan spoke out loud, he could hear how insane he sounded and he hoped that Shane would believe him but of course, Shane didn’t believe a single word that Ryan said.

“Why are you trusting some random person? Sara and I are leaving.”

“First of all, she’s not just some random person, I trust her. Second of all, there’s no way you can leave. I’m sure all the flights are blocked because they wouldn’t let the plane fly with the chances of the Shadow messing with the flights. The traffic in Los Angeles is so bad that you can’t even drive that far anyway,” Ryan wedged his phone between his ear and shoulder as he opened his bedroom door and walked towards the guest room. Marielle was awake and when she heard him shuffle in, she immediately turned towards him, her aura tinted the most alarming shade of purple Ryan had seen.

“Somebody found a safe-house and we need to get there now! I’ll text you the coordinates and you can send them to Shane,” Marielle informed as she began throwing her belongings into her duffel bag and paused for a moment to send the coordinates to Ryan before continuing to pack her belongings in a frenzy. Ryan relayed the message quickly to Shane and sent his friend the coordinates before he too began packing his belongings into a backpack. He knew that he didn’t have time as he took a few seconds to check the news to see how far away the Shadow was and learned that the Shadow was approaching Los Angeles at an extremely fast rate.

Ryan only took about five minutes to pack what he knew he needed as adrenaline helped speed up his movements. He tried to stay calm and remember what he needed to pack but panic was interfering with some of his thoughts. When he finished packing, Marielle was already set to go so they both ran out of the apartment and as Marielle typed in the address into Google Maps, Ryan unlocked the car doors. The parking lot was crowded with other people who were also trying to get out of Los Angeles. As soon as Ryan started the car, Marielle put her phone up on the car’s dashboard and Ryan followed the directions on the map.

“Even when the world is falling apart, Google Map still works,” Marielle marveled and Ryan laughed, trying to loosen up a bit despite the fact that he was more stressed than he was at the Sallie House after the flashlight turned on. The route Marielle chose was a local route and avoided all heavy traffic and highways and the safe-house was only located ten minutes away.

Ryan focused on driving but he couldn’t help but notice all the people frantically running around and the way the wind was starting to pick up. The palm trees seemed to bend as the wind blew stronger and stronger and the sky grew cloudier and cloudier. His hands gripped the wheel so tightly that his knuckles were almost white and he had to control his urge to press all the way down on the pedal to get to the safe-house as fast as possible without obeying traffic laws. In all honesty, Ryan probably didn’t have to worry about getting a ticket as police had bigger fish to fry.

Finally, they arrived at the safe-house, which was apparently just a giant office building. The office building was only three floors and looked like it was in mediocre shape despite not being used in a while. Ryan gave Marielle a questioning look as if to ask if this really was the safe-house and Marielle nodded, unlocking the car door and grabbing her duffel bag.

Other cars began pulling into the parking lot and Ryan could see the disturbing shades of purple people’s auras were. He saw Shane and Sara arrive and noted that Andrew, Annie, Steven, and Adam were getting out of their car. Ryan grabbed his backpack and locked his car before he joined Marielle in helping people get their belongings out of the car.

“The password to get in is elastic. I’ll help people get the bags in first and you can stay here and help them unload,” Marielle instructed before she helped a few people carry their bags into the office building. Shane and Sara had brought Obi and Shane shot Ryan a grateful as he and his girlfriend entered the building. Ryan tried to stay calm as he helped incoming people with their luggage but the wind was really picking up speed and he felt like if it grew any stronger, he would be knocked over. After Ryan helped his friends from Worth It unload their luggage, he started towards the building and saw Marielle usher Adam and Annie into the building. Then, he heard a loud howling sound behind him.

Ryan paused in his tracks and looked behind him to see the Shadow. The Shadow was more terrifying real life and the darkness of it seemed to drain every single drop of joy from the cracks of the Earth. It seemed to have a life of its own as it twirled around, a dark hole appearing within its cloudy body as it ferociously roared. And for some reason, the first thought Ryan had when he saw it was “Hey, that looks a lot like a faceless, black Gastly Pokemon!”

At first, the Shadow seemed focused on floating across the rooftops of buildings and its wind caused a few old, abandoned buildings to collapse, the debris from the structures flying into windows of apartments. Sounds of shattering glass and terrified screams filled the air and the Shadow paused for a moment before turning towards where Ryan was standing, seeming to have sensed where the people with superpowers had gathered.

Ryan snapped back to his senses and began sprinting towards the office building, fighting to run as fast as he could against the tornado-like wind. Steven and Andrew were also watching the Shadow move towards them in shock and Ryan grabbed both of them by their arms, shaking them out of their trance. They began sprinting alongside Ryan towards the office building as they were so close to entering the office building when the door suddenly slammed shut. Ryan was confused at first and he pounded on the door, begging whoever was behind the door to open up. He didn’t know why the door had been shut all of a sudden and he continued knocking and yelling as Andrew pulled on the door handle, hoping that his yells could be heard over the crescendoing sounds of the wind.

Steven, however, was calmly standing next to the two panicking men as he closed his eyes, telepathically communicating with the people inside. After a few seconds, he turned towards Andrew and Ryan with a bitter expression. “There’s no use. They’re not letting us in. They’re afraid that the Shadow will go in and consume everybody inside.”

“So we’re just supposed to die out here?” Andrew asked incredulously and Ryan dropped his arm, the wave of panic slowly morphing into a fresh wave of fear. The Shadow was getting closer and closer and Steven’s eyes were closed as he concentrated on communicating with the people inside. The wind continued howling louder and louder and Steven’s eyes opened.

“No, you’re not dying. Not on my watch. Stay here, help is coming,” Steven turned towards the dark mass and began jogging away from the office building, his silver hair tousled by the powerful wind. He made it to the other side of the street and was relatively far from the parking lot and he began waving his arms and yelling. “Hey, Shadow! Look over here you big dumb black ball of ink!”

The Shadow stopped and turned towards Steven, and Ryan swore that he saw an evil grin within the darkness of its endless black body. It picked up speed as it began darting towards Steven and Ryan felt realization dawning on him when Steven didn’t make any effort to run away from the Shadow but it was too late to save him.

As the Shadow drew nearer to Steven, Adam suddenly teleported outside and grabbed Andrew and Ryan by the arm. Without warning, the Shadow sucked a large breath in and Steven screamed in agony as a blue orb was ripped out of his chest and floated into the Shadow. As the blue orb slowly drifted towards the Shadow, Steven’s body was suspended in the air and his eyes flashed with pain. The blue orb, Steven’s soul, faded as the Shadow consumed it hungrily and it seemed to really enjoy the meal as Steven’s soul was probably delicious since it was so vibrant. Andrew tried to cry out as he watched Steven’s lifeless body drop to the ground with a thud but before he could act, Adam teleported him and Ryan into the building.

Teleportation was always disorienting so when Ryan was teleported into the office building, he took a second to clear the mild headache from teleporting before he looked up to see everybody staring at him, Andrew and Adam. Adam looked exhausted from having to teleport himself along with two other people into a building and Annie helped guide him over to a chair so he could take a seat and regain his energy. Andrew’s eyes were wet with tears and he barely had time to mourn before the Shadow began banging against the side of the office building.

Some people let out yelps of surprise and moved farther back towards the back of the room, watching as the Shadow continued to ram its midnight black body into the building. Despite its force, all of its efforts were in vain as no matter how hard it tried to break into the building. Ryan could see its murky form pressed against the glass and could sense its desperation to consume the delicious souls of the people inside. Eventually, after almost ten minutes of trying, the Shadow gave up and whirled away, off to consume the souls of other people with superpowers.

Ryan glanced at Marielle inquisitively and she explained in a low voice, “There’s a healer on the third floor who cast a protection spell on this house. It took him a long time to prepare it but it will only last forty-eight hours. He had been preparing for it since a seer told him about it.”

The room was relatively silent as everybody was still trying to process what had just happened. Shane’s arms were wrapped tightly around Sara’s body and Sara was holding onto Obi, her eyes still squeezed shut as if she was expecting the shadow to burst in at any moment. Adam still looked drained and Annie was biting her lip worriedly. Unsurprisingly, Andrew was the worst out of everybody as he had just watched his best friend die. Annie placed a comforting hand on Andrew’s shoulder and he buried his head in his hands, muffling a sob.

Ryan was surprised when Marielle held his hand but he didn’t pull away and everybody sat in solemn silence, mourning the sacrifice that was made and fearing for what the future holds.


	4. Chapter 4

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> they have one shot to take down the shadow once and for all and ryan never thought he would have to fight this hard for a happy ending

After the initial shock of the Shadow’s attempted shock wore off, everybody began getting situation. Ryan was surprised to find that Ned Fulmer and his wife, Ariel, were the ones who had found the office and they helped assign two people to an office room. Of course, Ryan was assigned to a room with Marielle and he didn’t take long to unpack his belongings before he and Marielle helped others get situated. Andrew was still having a hard time adjusting and Adam and Annie were still trying to help him feel better. The healer who had been keeping the building safe was Keith Habersberger, which was surprising as Ryan never knew that Keith had powers.

Keith had informed Ryan that only half of the Try Guys were in the safe-house because the Shadow got to Eugene and Zach before they could get a chance to leave to the safe-house. He and Ned weren’t the only ones who lost people who were dear to them; many other people in the safe house had azure auras from feeling despondent about their losses.

The office wasn’t the worst spot to be trapped in but it wasn’t the most ideal location either. There were plenty of bathrooms but there weren’t any showers because there was really no need for an office to have showers until you were forced to stay inside it for two days. There weren’t any beds, which meant everybody had to sleep on the floor, but Ned and Ariel had enough sleeping bags and blankets that each pair of people could share one of the two. There was only one kitchen available and the food supply was sparse, to say the least. On the bright side, they only had to bear with these uncomfortable conditions for forty-six more hours. But then again, facing the Shadow wasn’t much more desirable than staying in the safe-house.

Settling in took about an hour and there was another hour of people wandering around the office building with either the intent on exploring the place or numbly trying to walk off their negative feelings. After those first two hours, Ned and Ariel assembled a meeting to discuss a plan for when the safe-house was no longer safe and to establish a few rules. The meeting was held in a large meeting room and everybody stared at the blank whiteboard from the office chairs around the long table they sat in.

As Ariel and Ned explained the rules and a couple things they needed to know about the safe-house, the tension was now not in the silence or hushed whispers, but rather in people’s expressions. Ryan didn’t need to read people’s auras to tell that they were worried. Sara had her arms wrapped around Obi in a tight embrace and Shane looked exhausted. Even Marielle’s aura was starting to dull a bit as she looked unbelievably stressed.

After the couple in charge finished setting down ground rules, Jen stood up from her seat and Ryan, along with many other Buzzfeed employees in the room, was shocked. Out of all the people in the building, Jen seemed like the least likely to have her life put-together enough to handle the responsibility of explaining a plan as she had the reputation of being a messy, spontaneous disaster gay.

“Okay folks, listen up if you don’t want to die. Technically, as a seer, I’m not usually allowed to tell you these sorts of things because of complications with the future and stuff but-” Jen paused when she saw Adam raising his hand with a confused expression on his face. “Oh, right, I forgot about that.”

Jen took a moment to take out her contacts and revealed her golden eyes. Ryan wasn’t the only person who audibly gasped at her reveal as Jen had the most intense gold eyes Ryan had ever seen, which meant that she was an extremely powerful seer. Jen must’ve had a reason for hiding her being a seer but now was not the time to ask questions about her decisions. She clasped her hands together, a small smile still on her face. Even in the darkest times, Jen somehow always was the one to stay positive. “Now, as I was saying, I’m telling you all this because it’s important for you all to know about what we need to do in order to stop the Shadow from hurting more people.”

Jen proceeded to pick up a blue expo marker, taking off the cap, and began drawing on the whiteboard. “The plan is pretty simple and it should work as long as we make sure we don’t mess up. Only a few people are really needed in order to destroy the Shadow and all the other people have to do is distract it, which is another thing I have to explain, but that’s for later.”

As Jen spoke, she drew some stick figures on the board and when she stopped talking, she stepped away from the whiteboard and gestured to it. She had drawn a couple stick figures arranged in a circle and there was another circle of people around it. In the center of the two rings of stick figures was a dark ball of squiggles that was presumably the Shadow. Pointing at the whiteboard with the back of her marker, Jen turned towards everybody and explained the obvious, “This is the Shadow.”

She dragged her marker over to the inner circle of people and continued, “These are the people with superpowers who we need in order to destroy the Shadow. They will combine their powers and then send that as a blast to kill the Shadow. But they have to all be holding hands in order to combine their powers.”

Then, Jen moved the marker over to the outer circle of people. “After the distraction has been created, the people who have been busy with distracting can move out of the circle so they don’t disrupt the people with superpowers.”

“Now, back to the Shadow just targeting people with superpowers point I made a couple seconds ago,” Jen pushed the cap back onto the marker and as she talked, she animatedly gestured with it. “We can confuse the shadow by having pairs share powers. Long story short, pairs are pairs of people, usually with one person who has a superpower and the other without, and who you’re paired with is usually who you’re closest with. It’s sort of like a soulmate system but the pairings can be platonic. If you’re paired with somebody, it means that you were chosen to share powers with them.

“Anyway, nobody on this planet has figured out how to share superpowers but after realizing that pairs were an important part of this plan, a bunch of seers came together and tested ways to share powers. Ned and Ariel actually helped a lot with this so everybody give a short round of applause for this lovely couple, who both, by the way, are so wonderful for arranging all this for us.”

There was a short break of scattered claps and Jen paused for a moment to wait for the applause to die down before resuming her explanation. “It’s hard to explain how to share your powers but basically, you kind of just have to let your energy flow through you, like how they tell you to do so in yoga, while holding their hand. Let me demonstrate. Annie, do you mind standing up?”

Annie looked confused but she nodded, standing up and walking up next to Jen. Jen gently grabbed Annie’s hand gently and closed her eyes. While Annie’s aura had been a deep purple and Jen’s aura had been a lighter lilac purple, Annie’s aura shifted to a lilac purple and when she blinked, her eyes suddenly turned golden. Jen stepped away from Annie as Annie blinked in confusion, wiggling her fingers. “See, Annie seems like a seer but she doesn’t have all of my powers. The effects will wear off in an hour. Also, surprise, Annie and I got paired. You should be able to find your pairs pretty easily.”

“You still haven’t told us who’s in the inner circle yet,” Ariel reminded and Jen grinned as she twirled around to face the board. She seemed to be in thought for a moment before she turned back towards everybody.

“I believe the order is Ryan, Marielle, Sara, Adam, Keith, Ned, and me. That’s about it. The plan is pretty simple,” Jen leaned against the board and she seemed to be radiating confidence, even though her aura was still a lilac purple. Everybody, despite still being a little shell-shocked from the Shadow’s attack, seemed a little more at ease knowing there was a way to defeat the Shadow. However, Andrew was the only person who didn’t seem too excited about this plan as he leaned back in his chair with a frown on his face.

“This sounds so cheesy. It sounds like it was taken directly out of a movie,” Andrew complained and everybody turned towards him, not really surprised that he was stepping in to provide a cynical viewpoint. After all, he just watched his best friend die and probably didn’t really want the responsibility of helping people save the world.

“Do you have any other plans? Weapons don’t work on the Shadow. Oh, by the way, I’m Marielle. I’m also a seer,” Marielle smiled as people shifted their attention towards her. Most of them didn’t seem to know her but they seemed to agree that Jen’s plan was the most reasonable as after her remark was made, there were a few nods. Andrew slumped in his chair in defeat and Jen clasped her hands together again, hoping to ease the awkward tension.

“Great! We’re all on the same page! Now, we have forty-five hours to chill out, test our ability to share powers with our pairs, and enjoy life before we face the Shadow!”

~

The last few hours of the day consisted of people figuring out what pairs they were in and figuring out how sharing powers worked. As Jen mentioned, most pairs consisted of one person who had superpowers and one person who didn’t but in Ryan and Marielle’s case, they both had powers so they didn’t need to share.

When Jen was talking about pairs, a thought occurred to Ryan: the reason why Marielle’s aura was silver could be because she was paired with him. He didn’t feel the need to share this theory and decided that he could wait until he had the chance to ask her on a proper date.

Slowly, people drifted back to their rooms to sleep and while Ryan was used to staying up extremely late and only getting four hours of sleep, the events during that day were a lot to handle and he found himself more exhausted than usual. He quickly fell asleep next to Marielle under the blanket they shared and when he woke up the next morning, he found that Marielle was curled up next to him, her head gently nestled next to his shoulder.

For that reason, Ryan didn’t want to get up but he was fully awake and antsy, meaning that he definitely couldn’t fall back asleep again. He decided to carefully get up and head into the kitchen to make some coffee. The coffee machine, fortunately, was working so Ryan made one cup of coffee for himself and another cup for Marielle. By the time he returned to his room, Marielle was up and she was sitting on a chair, glancing out the window.

“Good morning. I made you some coffee.” Ryan handed Marielle a cup and she accepted it gratefully, smiling widely. He pulled up a chair and sat next to as they both stared out the window into the cloudy sky. The wind had stopped blowing so rigorously but there was still some wind kicking up loose pieces of debris on the road. The silence between the two was nice but Ryan broke it when his insistent curiosity got the best of him.

“Are you sure this plan is going to work?” Ryan tentatively asked and Marielle turned towards him, a look of surprise crossing her face.

“Yeah, why?” Marielle’s voice had an edge to it, as if she were tending up and waiting for something to happen. Slightly regretting asking the question, Ryan shrugged his shoulders and tried to brush off his remark.

“No reason. It’s just that, you know, it’s good to be sure.” Even though Ryan thought his reply was rather passive, Marielle didn’t seem to take it that way. Her grip on her cup of coffee tightened and she turned her golden eyes away from the window.

“Do you just not trust me and Jen? Or seers in general?” Marielle’s voice was starting to get louder as her anxiety began creeping its way into her thoughts and words. Her aura was tinting a slightly redder purple and her worry was starting to morph into anger. Having dealt with quick emotion changes, Ryan knew that this was just a natural response to the situation. The best way to handle any abrupt change in emotion was to stay honest.

“Mari, it’s not that I don’t trust you. I’m just scared that if it doesn’t work, people are going to get hurt. I’ve already lost Steven, I can’t afford to lose you.” Ryan didn’t mean to let the last part slip out and Marielle set her coffee on the windowsill so she could properly hug Ryan. They both hadn’t really talked much about how they had been feeling and as the silence settled as they hugged, they knew that they had each other to rely on.

Their intimate moment was broken by Shane, who knocked on their door and cheerily announced, “Breakfast is ready!”

Breakfast was slightly less gloomy than the meeting and everybody seemed to have a little more hope than the day before. The next day mainly consisted of people trying to relax and distract themselves from the Shadow by listening to music, walking around, etc. The day after, from the moment morning broke, tension was starting to bubble again as it was the day they would face the Shadow.

Breakfast was finished quickly and everybody began preparing with two hours left to spare until the protection spell wore off. Once the protection spell wore off, the Shadow would be immediately drawn to the building as there were a large number of people with superpowers in it so everybody had to be prepared. Nervous energy was piling up in the building as people asked Jen questions about the plan to clarify certain aspects and tried to mentally prepare for the battle. They only had one chance at taking down the Shadow and they couldn’t afford to fail.

Half an hour before the spell wore off, everybody began fusing their powers with their pairs. Ryan found that he had trouble reading auras after the powers were fused so he couldn’t tell how everybody was feeling but he still felt the general dread in the air. However, since fusing powers required holding hands, some people seemed a little more hopeful as they held their partners hand, not only to fuse powers, but also for comfort. It was nice to know that even during the darkest times, love and care could still provide some light.

Finally, the protection spell wore off and the wind began howling ferociously outside. Everybody shuffled outside, staring up into the ominously dark sky as they awaited the arrival of the Shadow. Sure enough, the Shadow came barreling towards the group of people gathered in front of the office building. As much as Ryan wanted to run away screaming, he stood his ground, gritting his teeth as he reminded himself that he needed to do this for Steven and everybody else who was gone.

Marielle must have noticed Ryan’s anxiety as she delicately intertwined their fingers together, even though they had no need to hold hands, and shuffled closer to him reassuringly. As the Shadow drew closer, Jen shouted over the sound of the wind ripping through the air, “Don’t forget the plan! Scatter! On the count of three.”

“One.” The Shadow was leaving behind a trail of debris and rooftop shingles were flying everywhere. It looked more enraged than it had been before, somehow emoting pure rage in nits formless tornado-like body.

“Two.” Ryan’s heart was about to explode. He had never felt his heart beat so fast before, not even when he was locked in a musty, dark room for ten minutes straight talking to ghosts and demons. Marielle squeezed his hand reassuringly and that simple gesture provided some strength. He stood up a little straighter and took a deep breath as the Shadow continued to get closer.

“Three!” The Shadow was only a few buildings away and was roaring with the fury of thunder and the power of earthquakes. Everybody scattered and Marielle let go of Ryan’s hand, joining the fray. Ryan didn’t know who was who but he brushed past people as he focused on trying to confuse the Shadow.

The Shadow paused as it hovered over the mass of people scrambling around, too confused by all the fake superpowers and having trouble distinguishing which souls were the ones that actually contained powers. Ryan noted that the people who were in charge of distracting were starting to move towards the outskirts of the clump and he took it as a sign that the people in the inner circle were starting to form the circle. He grabbed onto Marielle’s hand and also managed to find his way to Jen. The people in the outer circle left the clump and by the time the Shadow realized what had just happened, the people with superpowers were already in a circle with their hands connected.

Ryan closed his eyes and tried to allow the energy to flow through him just as Jen had instructed. He found that he could feel the powers of others pulsing through his fingertips and when he opened his eyes, his feet were floating off the ground. There was a strange but intense blue aura around everybody in the circle and as people began opening their eyes, they all were shocked by the fact that they were floating.

“Woah, is this a Guardians of the Galaxy moment?” Even though they were in the middle of trying to defeat the Shadow, Ryan couldn’t help but make a movie reference. He couldn’t wait to tell his brother that he got to levitate in the air while holding hands with other people with superpowers. From across the circle, Keith laughed at his reference and Ryan broke into a smile.

The Shadow was trying to rip the souls of the people in the circle out but their souls were secured in their bodies. Jen seemed to be concentrating on controlling the flow of energy and Ryan could feel the energy starting to build up. Her golden eyes opened and with a determined expression, she snarled at the Shadow, “This one’s for killing Steven.”

With those final words, the energy finally built up to its maximum power and there was a loud blast of blue. The blast was so powerful it caused Ryan to lose his grip and he flew backwards, skidding against the pavement. Dust had kicked up and Ryan coughed as he stood up, brushing off the dirt on his hands. The sky was slowly brightening and the looming clouds began parting quickly, like a wave receding back into the ocean.

Fortunately, Shadow was nowhere to be seen and Ryan saw that Marielle was standing up as well and rushed over to check in on her. She was coughing and waving away the dust from her face as Ryan hurried over to her. “Are you okay?”

“Never been better. How are you?” Marielle asked as she stood up straighter, her golden eyes blazing with triumph and her lips starting to form a grin. Her curls were out of place but Ryan could not stress the fact that no matter how messy her hair was or how tired she looked, Marielle was always going to be the most beautiful girl on the entire planet.

“You still look so beautiful even though we just killed the Shadow,” Ryan remarked breathless as he lightly placed a hand on Marielle’s face and Marielle smiled even wider. She took a step closer to him and maintained the perfect amount of eye contact.

“We just killed the Shadow and that’s the first thing you say?” Marielle raised a joking judgmental eyebrow and Ryan tried to form a proper sentence as he kind of had trouble thinking with Marielle’s face being this close to his. Luckily, he didn’t have to say anything as before he could speak, Marielle closed the gap between their lips.

It had been ages since Ryan kissed anybody so the first few seconds of the kiss mostly consisted of his brain forming key-board smash thoughts. Then, he managed to reciprocate the kiss and gently placed another hand on the side of Marielle’s neck as they continued to kiss. They didn’t stop kissing until they heard Shane clapping and they both blushed as other people joined him.

Ryan was sure that he was going to die of embarrassment but before he could melt into a puddle of distress, Marielle pulled him into another kiss and the world seemed to fall away, leaving them two to celebrate their victory.

~

After the Shadow disappeared, everybody struggled to return life back to the way it was. Projects were created to help support families who lost their homes to the Shadow and Ryan and Marielle settled down together. It took them an embarrassingly long time to admit their feelings but it was worth it. News reporters and scientists were stunned alike at how quickly the Shadow disappeared and nobody seemed to have witnessed the blast other than the people who were in it so the Shadow just seemed to disappear without any rhyme or reason.

Most of the damage was fixed with money from governments who felt guilty about not stopping the riots but the deaths caused by the Shadow couldn’t ever be fixed. There were fewer people with superpowers now and Ryan missed being able to share a knowing smile with empaths he encountered on a daily basis.

Then, a few weeks after the Shadow disappeared, people who had their souls taken were suddenly coming back to life. They woke up confused and everybody began to search for lost people who came back to life. The moment Andrew heard this news, he immediately left work and drove to the office building, where Steven’s body had been placed in and surely enough, Steven had come back to life.

Now that everything had been restored, all that was left was for the world to learn its lesson about hate and how it literally tore the world apart. It would take the world a long time to fully accept this lesson but for now, Ryan didn’t want to worry about the future so he could some time with Marielle.

**Author's Note:**

> you can find me on tumblr[@luckysam78](https://luckysam78.tumblr.com/)! my bfu sideblog is [@tinsley-goldsworth](https://tinsley-goldsworth.tumblr.com/)! comments and kudos are greatly appreciated!


End file.
